If you have ever seen a tick, you were probably disgusted and thought it was a stupid bug and killed it. But they are a lot more complicated than you think. The tick I will be talking about is the Haemaphysalis longicornis, but its common name is the Bush Tick. The Bush Tick is originally from Australia but spread to places like Japan and New Zeeland.

             
The Bush Tick has a weird appearance. The size of it is about 1 inch. The color of the Bush Tick is black. The tick can live in humid or warm environments. The Bush tick has a big round body. Sometimes people will take this tick and squeeze it till it pops.

           
The Bush Tick is found in many places. They were originally from Australia but spread to Japan and New Zeeland. There are a lot of these ticks but the population is starting to decrease from people killing them. Because it is a tick, people are not trying to conserve this bug.

            
The Bush tick has an important part in the food chain. Several kinds of wild animals feed off of them. The Bush tick will feed of people, pets, and dead animals. They feed off them by eating their blood like other ticks would. This tick has no way of protecting themselves. So they usually get eaten or killed.

         
As you can see the bush tick is very important to the food chain and to many animals for their survival. There are many interesting things about this tick. For example, they have a very unusual body and color. My thoughts about this tick are that they have a very interesting design and shape. They would be cool to look at but I would not want one crawling me?

Author: Noah K
Published: 02/2013       

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haemaphysalis_longicornis

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Haemaphysalis+longicornis

http://www.smsl.co.nz/site/southernmonitoring/files/NZB/Ha%20longicornis%20Profile.pdf

 

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Haemaphysalis_longicornis/classification/